Some electronic games involve relatively large virtual worlds or environments in which a player's character is able to move. However, the size of the virtual environment is larger than what can be displayed on a screen of a computing device, such as a mobile device. If the entire virtual environment is displayed at once, then interesting detail would be lost and the player would lose interest.
Current approaches to allowing a user to move a character in an electronic game environment focuses on the character itself. Inputs to control a character's movement typically involve up, down, left, and/or right. Regardless of the input, the player remains at the center of a computer screen. In other words, the game “camera” (or view of the game environment) follows the character's movement in order to keep the character centered on the computer screen. If the character is at the “edge” of the game environment and the current view is not desired, then the character will have to move in another direction.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.